I have always been a fan of video games, ever since I was a young girl. I love the idea of being able to enter a virtual world and explore, especially role playing games. By reading Kurt Squire’s ‘Critical Education in an Interactive Age’, it has brought me back to those days when I still played video games. Kurt’s analysis of gaming are points that I agree with and find that it helps youths grow and make decisions. For example, allowing players to make choices in the virtual world that will lead to certain consequences, it does teach them the moral of “with every action, there is a consequence”. I find that video games are an aid to teach logical sense. To speak from personal experience, fortunately, my parents weren’t ones that forbid video games at home, as long as we didn’t spend too much time on it and that it wasn’t too violent. My go-to games have always been games such as The Sims, Rollercoaster and Zoo Tycoon. Which has been beneficial because it did teach me that if I wanted my tycoon business to run smoothly, I had to complete certain tasks, or not have my customers in the game pay to go use the washroom (which I must admit, I did charge for washroom use because I found it amusing). I found that these games were able to subtlety teach logical sense. Perhaps the subtlety of the positive effects of video games is the reason why some people are against video games.
I am all for using Hip Hop for good to teach and bring awareness for social justice. However, after hearing and reading about Kayne West wanting to run for President in 2020...This isn’t what I expected. However, perhaps Kayne West is trying to bring justice to society. All of his visions and dreams aren’t that bad. He is a hard working man. Take a look at this video of Kayne on Jimmy Kimmel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrMRF68kSRc He does raise a few points. However, can Kayne West run a country? What would that country look like? I shiver just thinking about it. I’m afraid to discuss this topic of Kayne West running for President furthermore...or perhaps I should, will this discussion bring more people to my blog?.
Remixing is everywhere. It can be seen on something like a remix or mashup of songs, such as DJ Earworm’s “United State of Pop 2014 (Do What You Wanna Do) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjYWwZYLYEs Remix is basically what you think of when a DJ or producer mixes a song. Like DJ Earworm, he created a mashup (combination of two or more songs to create something new and distinct from the original) of 2014 greatest pop songs and take elements from each of them and combine them to make a new product.
I believe that we’ve actually have been “remixing” for a very long time, especially us educators. For example, something as simple as a teacher sharing their resources with you and you modifying it to meet the standards of your students or your teaching style. There are many different ways of remixing now within our digital age. With technology, it is now easier for teachers and students to remix, find resources to help them remix, and be digitally literate. It is now very convenient to access information in many different ways, you can google or go on youtube. Producing something as simple as memes are easily done now. Sharing information is as easy as pressing the retweet button and things go viral in minutes. With all this access and technology, remixing and reusing things, like the DJ Earworm’s mashup, it allows us to create something new. We should take advantage of remixing and the technological tools we have .We have a wide range of digital tools that allow us to remix resources that involve, pictures, videos, audio and so much more. Here are some tools that I have either used or learned about from other educators that involve remixing. Take a look through them and enjoy! Hope you’ll be able to use them in your classroom!
This week, I had the opportunity to present to the class the idea of Do-It-With Others (DIWO) in the classroom. My main focus was to share ideas and resources with everyone on what technological tools they can use in order to integrate and create a DIWO environment. I've covered tools such as: Scratch, Edmodo, Desmos, 101qs, Do Something, ePals and HitRecord. Feel free to take a look at my presentation (PDF) and explore!
With the elections around the corner, it definitely makes sense to talk about politics and the youths’ involvement. This coincidentally leads into this week’s reading of “Fan Activism as Participatory Politics: The Case of the Harry Potter Alliance” by Henry Jenkins. Its focus on Andrew Slack, the founder of the Harry Potter Alliance, talks about how powerful society can be in becoming activists with the help of Harry Potter. Furthermore, it’s not only Harry Potter and the Harry Potter Alliance that influences the youth, but pop culture as a whole. Hollywood has a strong influence on youth and when the industry is able to use their power for good to bring awareness.
Personally, I am very much interested with pop culture and when I notice cultural acupuncture in entertainment, it makes me smile. I will admit, as a fan, I am easily influenced and will look into real life issues that are brought up through pop culture. It helps me expand my views and delve into more detail as to what is happening. Also,I find that pop culture and the cultural acupuncture definitely helps me and the students connect by using “metaphors and analogies that are already part of young people’s lives” (p 70, Jenkins). This is not only a great way to have students involved with real world issues and civics, but also engages them into your lessons when teachers are able to create this link. In the reading, it mentions that Slack came up with the idea of cultural acupuncture when he noticed the news media was more interested in the next Harry Potter film than the genocide in Darfur, he decided to take action. This idea of using a very popular book and using its influence to bring awareness is definitely something I look up to. I strongly respect Andrew Slack for doing this. We need more people to model this and know what type of important information should be focused on more compared to others. To end things off with this post, here is a a link to a funny video of an anchor throwing a tantrum after having to deliver another Kardashian news: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1fuoOH7Dw8 We definitely need to filter out reports like the Kardashians and focus more on what is necessary in civics. Henry Jenkins. “Fan Activism as Participatory Politics: The Case of the Harry Potter Alliance.” DIY Citizenship. Eds. Matt Ratto and Megan Boler. Cambridge: MIT, 2015. pp. 65-73. I very much liked this week’s reading by Robert Saunders’ “Imperial Imaginaries:Employing Science Fiction to Talk About Geopolitics” of integrating pop-culture to teach international relations and geopolitics. Saunders was able to give concrete examples on how he related science fiction into his lessons. Furthermore, he states his reasoning of using science fiction; “The goal of employing these pop-culture products to talk about geo-power is not to produce an objective understanding of George Lucas’ or Gene Roddenberry’s galactic realms, but instead to promote intersubjective and intertextual knowledge, which in turn enables students to develop their geopolitical vocabulary and apply it to the real world.” (Saunders) This is what I find the most important aspect, not only does integrating science fiction into the class if entertaining, but being able to learn the themes and apply it.
Now as a Math and Chemistry teacher, I was wondering, how can I integrate science fiction into my classes? Fortunately, yesterday, I came across Ted-Ed’s “The science of ‘The Martian’: 5 TED-Ed Lessons to help you understand the film”. (http://blog.ed.ted.com/2015/09/22/the-science-of-the-martian-5-ted-ed-lessons-to-help-you-understand-the-film/ ) I can’t wait to apply this into the class and I’m sure the students will be as excited as I will be when we integrate ‘The Martian’ into our Math and Chemistry lessons! Reference: Saunders, R. (2015) ““Imperial Imaginaries:Employing Science Fiction to Talk About Geopolitics” Popular Culture and World Politics: Theories, Methods,and Pedagogies. p 149-159 There are advertisements everywhere. You see commercials on tv, before a youtube video starts, you see advertisements on billboards, on the sides of buses and posters at subway stops. Advertisements are great tools to persuade the audience with the desired feelings of “want”. After reading “Advertising and Consumerism: A Space for Pedagogical Practice” by Virginia S. Funes, it was sad for me to read that “Teaching is based on concepts of “duty” and “being”” and that it “aims at explaining things “as they are” for a receiver that “must” learn them”. (pg 169)
I find that this view of teaching needs to be changed even though it may be hard to deliver attractive advertisements for students in the classroom. When I teach, I don’t think i’m only a teacher but I pretend that I am also an actress and salesperson in a commercial. A good advertisement can make viewers feel the need to buy a certain product, I know I’ve been a victim to this. As teachers, if we really want to make an educational influence upon our students, we need to know how to sell our lessons. It won’t be easy, but nothing is. Workers at Best Buy to Banana Republic to McDonald’s to Car dealerships, they all have to work hard to sell their products. Some even get a commision from it, while we, teachers, get to change the future through inspiring our students. Reference: Funes, V. (2008). “Chapter Ten: Advertising and Consumerism: A Space for Pedagogical Practice”. Mirror Images: Popular Culture and Education, 338, p 159-177 I surprised myself as to how intrigued I was with David Wong and Danah Hendricksen’s “If Ideas WERE Fashion” read. The article talks about how advertisements like iPod’s Silhouette advertisement catches the audience’s attention, how everyone wants to have the next big thing, how celebrities help attract consumers to a certain product, but most importantly, how successful ads are able to “evoke feelings of connection and possibility” (p 190). I felt as there was a theme being told and its connection to teachers is that educators need to be able to sell their lessons. If we want to attract our students, we need to act as good sales representatives. We need to know what interests our audience and market the curriculum towards them. On top of this, it creates inclusivity in the classroom as students feel represented in their learning.
The article does also bring up another fashion related idea which is “What Not to Wear”, the tv show. It came to my attention that this fashion show idea is very similar as to how students learn differently. Each candidate’s new fashion style on the show is tailored to their personality and so should students’ learning. As teachers, it is important to involve a variety of teaching strategies to best support students with different learning styles. Furthermore, after reading this article, I reflected upon myself and came to a conclusion that I need to be like a fashion designer. Fashion has constantly been changing throughout the years (here’s a little fun video you can watch to see how fashion has changed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4z90wlwYs8 ), The fashion analogy that came to my mind is that educators need to be aware of the latest fashion trends. Fashion designers are always constantly trying to create the new “fad” as the consumers are trying to keep up to date, buying and trying the latest clothes. Educators need to know what the latest trends are in teaching to better meet the needs of their students. Teachers are trying different ways to incorporate technology into the classroom, which is the “fad” right now in the education world, but we need to sell the product properly. We need to be able to teach with the 21st century technology, including the 21st century pedagogy. In conclusion, ideas and teaching is like fashion and can be treated with a similar mindset. In addition, how about sports? Here’s a little fun video by Key & Peele that delivers a message of what would the world be like if teachers were treated like athletes. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkHqPFbxmOU Reference: Henriksen, D., & Wong, D. (2008). “Chapter Eleven: If Ideas were Fashion”. Mirror Images: Popular Culture and Education, 338, p 179-198 |
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